Alone

Ellis loomed over Nick with a defib charged and ready in his hands, chirping and screeching at him as if to say 'use me!'

Somewhere in the back of his mind, after countless of times of being called dumb…of being called something that he was not…being insulted and treated like a child when trying to look at a bad situation in a brighter way…after constantly trying to be the picker-upper of the gang and liven up their moods with his random singing and rants so they wouldn't lose all hope because of an apocalypse and end up going insane with so much focus on the negativity…

There he lay.

His white suit boldly stained crimson and a void look on his face, the last thing he saw was the hunter that pounced him.

And Ellis just couldn't reach him on time.

Rochelle and Coach had become separated from them and left him to deal with the tank on his own with Nick.

But the hunter took down Nick…

Still, the question burned in his mind—did he want to save the man who so clearly hated his guts? After threatening to leave him behind many times and trading him in for other survivors…

What was his worth to him? Coach and Rochelle were Coach and Rochelle. They had their heads screwed on right but once in a while, he would wonder what they thought of him too. He was the youngest, loudest, and deemed the stupidest because he thought he was impervious to everything and any zombie that came his way.

But damn it all, he knew he wasn't! He was trying to be brave and trying to take their hits! Trying to ensure that they wouldn't end up the way Nick was now!

Another nag in the back of his mind.

It took only a few minutes for people to be dead forever. A minute and a half to become a vegetable.

How long has passed? Surely not more than a few seconds…

Couldn't be more than a few seconds…

Yet there he stood. Same body on the ground in a pool of blood. Same hands bearing rings lying limply to his sides, his face contorted in a final anguish.

"You're not dead. You're NOT DYING ON ME!"

Ellis let out a final roar and pulled both arms backwards, forcefully, and in a moment's breath, Ellis punched the paddles to Nick's chest and positioned his thumbs over the starters. It was almost robotic, or in slow-mo.

"CLEAR!"

It felt only natural to yell that out loud as he depressed the buttons on the paddles and watched Nick's body shoot upwards, as if repelling the shock, and then fall back onto the ground. Ellis pulled away, his mind clearing up more and more now.

He was going to save him.

Harass him once more with his stories and songs and rants.

Be the bait whenever there was a special infected around.

Poke fun at the fact that there may have been a turd or three laying on the shoulder of his white three thousand dollar suit.

Be the older man's rage outlet like he was his optimistic outlet.

And just as two negatives make a positive, overly-optimistic versus pessimistic, they created a questionable bond that only men could seem to form.
"CLEAR!"

Once more, the older man's body jolted upwards but this time, a deep gasp echoed through the vast space.

"OW! STOP SHOCKING ME!"

And with that, a relieved grin spread across the mechanic's face and he could feel tears prick behind his eyes. He was alright. He was his same asshole-ish self.

"Come on, now, up you go."

Ellis threw the defib to the side with a loud clatter and held out a hand to Nick, smiling as best as he could.

"The hell!"

The conman took hold of Ellis's hand nonetheless, and with a great haul, was pulled onto his feet. Nick was almost surprised at the strength that the kid had. Ellis wrapped Nick's arm around his neck and proceeded towards the orange arrows.

"Let me go, Overalls."

"Now, now, I'm not letting go 'till I know you can walk right on your feet. See? Y'can't even bring 'em up to a proper pace. Now, it ain't agonizing enough to bring you back, but I gotta watch you limp 'till you can see straight? You stupid or somethin'?"

Nick's bowed head turned to the side, his eyes moving up from the stubbled chin of the young man, past his grin, and falling upon his eyes, seeing his eyebrows pulled together in worry. He let his head fall again upon his chest in a strange laughter, feeling the tips of his shoes being dragged out a bit against the asphalt.

"Me? Stupid? Coming from a hick?"

"Now, if I can see you're being as useless as a pail with a hole, then you must be."

Ellis brought Nick over to a bench on the side of the street and gently set him down, yanking his gun off his back and sitting on the bench beside him, reloading it carefully. There was a heavy pause in the air that unsettled the conman. He was ready by now to hear a story or something from the mechanic, but instead there was silence. His eyes were scanning the distance in search for zombies or the others, but he could tell that something else was on his mind.

"So…I realized that you always take the hits from specials…it always hurts like that?"

"N'aw, you worried?"

"No, you're an idiot for taking on that many in that case. Shoot it before it bears its weight on you and you won't get hurt so many times. You're not invincible, you know?"

"Neither are you."

Ellis's reply was curt and hit home. Nick frowned and rubbed his forehead, his vision stabilizing as the asphalt now stopped tilting from side to side. Everything Ellis did was deliberate…

"Don't go dyin' on me again." Ellis snapped his gun shut and turned to Nick with a stern look on his face. His face was set hard and he stared the older man straight in the eyes, the conman knowing that he was in a no-nonsense mood. It wasn't the first time he'd seen him that way, but he wasn't used to it. He didn't like it.

"'Cause I don't got another defib. An' Coach and Ro are missing. I ain't goin' at this shit alone."

Aha.

That was it.

Nick grinned broadly and swung his arms behind the bench, leaning his head backwards and closing his eyes.

"Don't worry, Fireball. I'm not going anywhere."

"Good. Because I got a shitload of stories to tell ya."

AN: Nnnnrf I had this story idea dragging in my mind since FOREVER and I just got around to writing it. Why now, Cams? Why write this now? WELL! It's 1 in the morning, I'm pumped on an energy drink, and I've finally had time. Enjoy!